Factor analysis

A statistical technique used to examine the interrelations among a set of variables, or items, in order to identify an underlying structure to those items. It was first developed in psychology by Spearman (1904) and Thurstone (1931). A distinction is made between confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory factor analysis. In the first case is an underlying causal structure hypothesized. 

Literature:

 
Dore, J. C. & Ojasoo, T. (2001). How to analyze publication time trends by correspondence factor analysis: Analysis of publications by 48 countries in 18 disciplines over 12 years. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 52(9), 763-769.

 
Kiang, M. Y. & Kumar, A. (2001). An evaluation of self-organizing map networks as a robust alternative to factor analysis in data mining applications. Information Systems Research, 12(2), 177-194.
 

Krauth, J. (1981). Techniques of classification in psychology I: factor analysis, facet analyses, multidimensional scaling, latent structure analysis. International Classification, 8(3), 126-132.

Spearman, C. (1904). General intelligence objectively determined and measured. American Journal of Psychology 15, 201-293

Thurstone, L. L. (1931). Multiple factor analysis. Psychological Review, 38, 406-427.

Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. (2007-02-18). Factor analysis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_analysis

Birger Hjørland

Last edited: 18-02-2007

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